New Lifeboat For St Davids

12 April 2013

Today is a momentous day, not only for the RNLI in St.Davids but for Pembrokeshire as a whole, the lifeboat station’s volunteer crew will be bring their eagerly awaited new lifeboat home.

The current Tyne class lifeboat Garside will sail out into the bay to welcome home the modern vessel as she arrives in Wales for the first time after setting sail from RNLI Headquarters in Dorset this Friday the 12th of Apri.

The volunteer crew have spent the last week down in Poole where they have undertaken familiarisation training at the charity’s purpose built RNLI College to get to grips with every aspect of the new lifeboat. The passage home over the weekend will take in Alderney, Falmouth and Kilmore Quay before the final leg across to Pembrokeshire.

The £2.7M lifeboat is called RNLB Norah Wortley and has been funded by the generous bequest of Mrs Diane Mary Symon. Mrs Symon died in February 2010 and at that time was living in Newton Abbot in Devon. The lifeboat will be dedicated to a family member at a naming ceremony to be held at a later date. (Image right supplied by RNLI)

The charity which saves lives at sea has invested £10.8M in four new Tamar class lifeboats for Porthdinllaen, Moelfre, St Davids and The Mumbles and over £40M on associated shore works. Porthdinllaen was first to receive its new lifeboat in August, followed by Moelfre which sailed into its Anglesey home for the first time last month. Work is currently underway to build a new home for The Mumbles’ new Tamar.

St Davids’ new lifeboat will be kept on a mooring whilst work to construct its new home begins. The plans for a new boathouse have been in development for a number of years. If planning permission is granted at the St Justinians site, building is expected to start in the Autumn.

For more information on the RNLI and about this historic day please click here